How do you even deal with homesickness?! When a lot of the time those who you miss, don’t really understand why you would miss home. For them, nothing’s changed. In their eyes, you’re the one living your best life, laying on beaches lapping up the sun and living the life of luxury. Whilst you know you’re very lucky to be traveling or abroad, it makes it very hard for anyone to have any idea how you’re feeling or what you’re going through (or what your life actually is currently like?!). Essentially, you don’t want to complain because you feel like you’re making a big deal about a ridiculous thing when you should be loving it.

I’ve been wondering why things haven’t seemed great lately. I spoke about our luck (or lack of) in the previous post and its not been great but hell, we’re here in NZ and we’re (pretty much) healthy, which makes us a heck of a lot luckier than others. I’ve been applying for jobs (which I am finally now working but more on that in the next post) but not working has been very boring, which means I’ve spent more time on social media than I should have lately.

I don’t really think its something you do consciously, After refreshing my emails for the 50th time I find myself somehow scrolling on Facebook (Facebook for about two minutes because I get sick of the videos and ads) and then I end up on Instagram.

Instagram – where everyone shares their best moments, beautiful photos & life goals completed. I’m not saying I’m not guilty of this, I mean when you think about it Instagram would be boring if we shared our dreary moments, but the real issue is the fact that we (as a society) are constantly looking at everyone else’s lives, everyone else’s best moments, and rather than being out making our own memories, we end up living other peoples lives via social media, wondering where we went wrong.

I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, because social media is great for me being on the other side of the world to a lot of my family and friends, as I use it to catch up with friends and see what they’re up to. Yet when I think about it, whenever I scroll on Facebook/Instagram it doesn’t come up with what I really want to see, it shows me what has the most likes (even if they are hidden). My other predicament is that I love sharing my photographs on my Instagram accounts and on my Facebook page – it’s the best way to get my photos out there.

Yet whilst I’d love to delete every app to completely get away from it and off the addiction (admit it, you’re addicted too) it just isn’t feasible for me. So I’ve taken a few steps to really put me in the right direction, to help my productivity and sanity, which in turn will help the homesickness.

1. Downloaded Facebook News Feed Eradicator
   I actually did this a while back and love it. It’s a free google chrome extension that will completely remove the newsfeed but you can still see everything else. Perfect for still accessing notifications and pages as well as groups etc without the distractions. The only downside is that it’s only on computers, not for phones. 😔
2. Removed Facebook from my phone apps
   I haven’t technically uninstalled it, in case I need to access it, but this will stop me from going onto it without realising, because I have to make an effort to find the app somewhere on my phone.
3. Use Planoly to post onto Instagram
   Planoly is the best thing ever. It allows you to upload photographs to it, and preview how your Instagram feed will look before you post. You can write and schedule posts ages in advance, which is a true lifesaver, meaning you can plow through photo uploads in one session rather than having to upload every single night.
4. Schedule on my Facebook Page
   I don’t have a fancy scheduler for Facebook, but since I don’t have the news feed to distract me, I easily jump on facebook on my laptop when I’ve got my photos ready, and upload them making sure I click on schedule just above the ‘share now’ button.
5. Removed Instagram from my phone apps
   You can actually access Instagram on your computer, but it isn’t half as addictive. So you don’t have to go without responding to messages, you can just make a certain time for that (like every Sunday evening).

I don’t have an expensive phone that tells me how long I spend on each app (seriously need to upgrade my phone) so I can’t record the stats, but I know it’s currently too much time and it’s not doing me any good. I know there are heaps of people out there who are finding this too. It’s hard to admit, and just as hard to just fix but you have to try.

There have been times when I’ve wanted to just leave my phone at home because it puts me in such a bad mood, but that’s not particularly safe. So by doing the above, it means I can still have my phone with me but not have any need to go on it unless I get a call or a text. It’s all a trial so I will give an update on how it’s going on my next post, which will be my monthly update.

Have you tried any of the above? or experienced homesickness? Drop a comment below, would love to hear others thoughts on this.

Harriet x

‘appreciate this moment. Stop and look around you. Be thankful for all you have and where you are because this time next year, nothing will be the same.’

@wheresmollie